With a $200,000 matching grant from the NFL (National Football League) Foundation, The Oxford Turf Committee is one step closer to paying off the remaining debt of Oxford’s High School’s synthetic blue turf, according to Turf Committee Chairman Jim Reis.

“I think we’ve raised on our own about $228,000 and they donated $200,000. It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s a matching grant, so this wouldn’t have happened and we couldn’t have applied for the grant if we didn’t have all the people step up and all the businesses and everyone that’s already contributed.”

According to its website (nflfoundation.org) “The National Football League Foundation (NFL Foundation) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and safety of sports, youth football and the communities in which we live. The NFL Foundation represents the 32 NFL clubs and supports the health and safety of athletes, youth football, and the communities which support our game.”

Reis said they’re within probably $15,000 to $20,000 of the total $442,000 total cost.

We still have a little ways to go, we’re not quite there,” he said. “We got a handful of people that are still paying on that 300 Club where we gave them time to pay $1,000 donation. Then we (have) a couple businesses in town that have made pledges and are still paying on those.”

Reis is hoping they will have the total paid off in the next few months.

“This puts us so close,” he added. “I can’t stress enough how humbled we are by the support we’ve gotten in the community to make this go through. It’s just great and just an incredible thing – We’re thankful for that.”